Stepping Forward
by Davner
Summary: The sequel to Stepping Back.


Nadesico doesn't belong to me. Please don't kill me.  
  
Another lost fic. This one is the sequel to Stepping Back.  
  
  
  
Stepping Forward  
  
  
  
He grunted again, straining his muscles for what felt like the thousandth time, but he was almost done. Sweat coated his brow as he grunted again, straining again. He could feel the cold air from the ship's environmental AC blowing against his bare chest. He grunted one last time and released…  
  
Letting go of the chin up bar and hitting the soft mat below.  
  
Lieutenant Jun Aoi took a couple of deep breaths and toweled his face off. That was it for another workout. He turned and made his way to the showers. Discarding his clothes, he turned on the water and just stood there, letting the water soothe him.  
  
Out of nowhere, a comm vid panel appeared in front of him.  
  
"Jun chan."  
  
He cried out and quickly covered himself with his hands. "Megumi!"  
  
The purple-haired comm officer smiled and stifled a giggle. "Sorry to bother you, Jun chan, but there's a message coming in for you marked 'Urgent.'"  
  
"It couldn't wait five minutes?" he asked.  
  
"I don't read the mail, just the envelope," Megumi told him, still smiling broadly.  
  
He sighed. "Okay. Thanks. I'll take it in the locker room." He turned and started out, quickly turning again as he heard Megumi wolf whistle at him. "Megumi chan!" he cried, blushing.  
  
She giggled. "Okay! Okay!" With that, her face disappeared.  
  
Jun sighed and shook his head. Sometimes Megumi was a bit TOO playful. He found himself smiling slightly and suddenly realized that he didn't mind. They had only been dating two weeks, but they seemed to share a connection, something he couldn't really put into words. He stepped into the locker room and wrapped a towel around his waist, keying a computer pad. Another vid window appeared in front of him, and a man about his age wearing a UE uniform appeared.  
  
"Marcus!" Jun cried with a smile.  
  
"Blue Jun!" the man greeted. "How the hell are ya?!"  
  
"I'm okay. What's the big emergency?"  
  
"No emergency," the UE officer smiled. "But nowadays it's the only way to get a ship to ship communique without people barging in or monitoring it. Fucking censors…"  
  
"You know you got me in the shower, right?" Jun asked darkly.  
  
"Yeah, that cute commo told me." Marcus grinned.  
  
"That's Megumi. My girlfriend," he explained. Wow, it felt nice to say words like that…  
  
"Finally gave up on o'l Clueless, huh?"  
  
"Something like that," Jun said evenly. "So what's up?"  
  
"Well, sorry to bug you. I really just wanted to call and tell you we're going to be neighbors. I'm getting transferred to the Dauntless."  
  
"We'll have to get together," Jun said with a smile.  
  
"Yeah. They're also bumping me to O-3." Marcus bragged.  
  
Jun paused. "Wow," he said without enthusiasm.  
  
"I guess next time we meet, you'll be saluting me, eh?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess so," Jun told him.  
  
"Well, listen, buddy. I gotta go. Talk to you later, alright?"  
  
"Yeah, sure."  
  
"Okay. Trefalgar out." The window disappeared. Jun sighed, sitting down on a bench.  
  
//O-3? MARCUS?! Isn't this the same Marcus Colby whose butt we kicked in every combat tactics simulation the Academy gave us?// his mind asked him. //The same Marcus we blew off the board during finals?!//  
  
He shook his head. When did he become so pathetic that Marcus Colby, United Earth Forces Academy screw-up extraordinaire could be promoted above him? Oh, sure, rank didn't really mean much. He was still an Executive Officer, a position usually given to Commanders and Lieutenant-Commanders. Even so…  
  
Even so…  
  
  
  
"…Sixteen hours later, at zero-six-thirty-two, the Chulip and the unmanned craft withdrew from the area." Ruri turned back to the senior staff that had been assembled for this mission briefing. The screen behind her showing animations of the Chulip's movement through an asteroid field, paused.  
  
"Some kind of recon mission?" Ryoko asked from her place near the far end of the table.  
  
"For sixteen hours?" Akatsuki asked with an arched eyebrow.  
  
"What's in there, anyway?" Minato asked.  
  
"Nothing but rocks," Inez pointed out. "Unless…"  
  
"Unless what?" Yurika asked her.  
  
Inez turned to the computer screen and brought up a bird's eye map of the solar system, highlighting Earth, Jupiter, and the asteroid field. "Computer, adjust map for three months from now." In response, the map shifted. Earth and Jupiter were nearly aligned with the asteroid field off to one side. "Six months," Inez prompted. The map changed again, and this time, the asteroid field was directly between Jupiter and Earth.  
  
Munatake slammed his fist onto the table.  
  
"I don't get it," Akito confessed.  
  
Inez smiled. "If I'm not mistaken, six months would coincide with Earth's next massive counteroffensive, ne?" She looked to Munatake.  
  
"They mined it," Erina growled.  
  
"It makes sense," Inez told them. "The fleet would undoubtedly use the asteroid field as cover as they move toward the forward area. A mine field here would cut them to pieces."  
  
"So what do we do?" Hikaru asked.  
  
"We disarm them, of course!" Yurika replied with a smile.  
  
"Sweep the entire asteroid field?" Ryoko asked.  
  
"Isn't that dangerous?" Hikaru questioned worriedly.  
  
"It's okay," Izumi spoke up. "We don't mined." She giggled stupidly.  
  
Ryoko rolled her eyes. "Wokka wokka wokka," she muttered.  
  
"It's okay!" Yurika explained. "Because we have an expert on board!"  
  
They all blinked. "An expert?" Akito asked.  
  
"Of course," Inez began with a smug smile. "I can…"  
  
"Jun kun!" Yurika finished.  
  
"HUH?!" They all turned to the EXO, who was staring out the window, oblivious to the conversation.  
  
Yurika nodded her head excitedly. "Jun kun was going to be an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer before he switched over to Operations in the Academy! Jun kun! Tell them about that great idea you had for that new mine! You know! The one you wrote your thesis on!"  
  
Jun wasn't paying attention. He was staring out at the asteroid field, deep in thought.  
  
//I'm just an ornament,// he was thinking. //It's not like I serve a function on this ship past babysitting Yurika, and I'm not even very good at that.// He sighed inwardly. //At least if I had been assigned to another ship, I'd have some kind of real responsibility. All I am, really, is a man with a nice title…//  
  
//Hey, Jun,// the rational part of his mind broke in. //I said, 'HEY JUN!'// it shouted a moment later. //You're on, man!//  
  
He looked up and noticed everyone staring at him. "Um…I'm sorry, what?"  
  
Yurika blinked. "Jun kun, are you feeling okay?"  
  
He looked over at Megumi and saw her give him a concerned look that seemed to ask, "What is it?" He shook his head.  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"Good!" Yurika bubbled. "So tell them!"  
  
"Um…"  
  
"About that mine you thought up for your Academy Sophomore Thesis! The…um… 'Self-Rep..Repai…"  
  
"Self-Replicating-Mine," Jun supplied. He cleared his throat and blushed a bit. "Well…It was nothing special…"  
  
"Are you kidding?!" Yurika cried. "It was so COOL!" She turned to the others. "Jun kun made up a mine that would use nanomachines to create replacement mines as others were detonated by passing ships! This way, a mine field could stay active forever!"  
  
"Yeah, well, the instructor didn't think…"  
  
"Oh, he was just an old codger!" Yurika told him, waving the argument aside. "Anyway, I'm sure Jun kun is up to it!"  
  
"Um…Up to what?"  
  
"The Nadesico is going to sweep this mine field!" Yurika declared.  
  
  
  
Jun took another slug of lukewarm coffee and went over the data pad again. It was getting late, and the O-Club was beginning to empty every so slowly. He was tired, hungry, and just a little ticked off at Yurika…  
  
//Well,// his brain taunted, //You wanted a real job, right?//  
  
"Jun chan?"  
  
He looked up and found Megumi standing at his table. "Megumi chan," he replied almost groggily. "Sit down. Something wrong?"  
  
"Yes," she told him. "It's past midnight! You've been working for eight straight hours!"  
  
He checked his watch and found she was right. "I'm almost there," he told her. "I think I have a good sweep pattern for the Aesti's. I just need another hour to…"  
  
"Jun chan, you have to rest," Megumi told him. "Otherwise you're just going to end up missing something." She sat down across from him. "Why don't you let me walk you back to your place. I'll tuck you in." She smiled, hoping that would convince him to rest a bit.  
  
"I can't," he told her finally. "Yurika wants to start sweeping the channel tomorrow morning. The pilots need to know what to expect out there." He went back to typing on the pad.  
  
"I don't see why we just can't use the gravity blast cannon to blow them all up," Megumi told him.  
  
"Space is more vast than that," Jun told her. "Considering how long it takes to recharge the cannon and how many different places the mines can be, it could take weeks to clear the belt that way."  
  
"So how ARE you going to do it?" she asked. A waiter appeared and put a cranberry juice in front of her.  
  
He looked at her for a moment, the put the pad down in front of her. The screen had a map of the asteroid belt with several lines connecting the floating rocks together like a connect-the-dot board. "The Aesti's are going to have to check the asteroids in this area. It's a narrow corridor that the fleet intends to use in six months. They land on a rock, check it out visually, then move on to the next one."  
  
"Why visually? Won't their scanners be able to pick it up?"  
  
He shook his head. "Can't do that. We have to assume the Jovians have technology similar to our own, if not more advanced. That means whatever kind of mine we have, they have. And WE have mines that can detect a short-range scan and explode."  
  
"Oh…"  
  
He shook his head again. "This is going to be a tough one for them. They can't use their short range scanners, they can't use their distortion fields…"  
  
"Huh?!"  
  
Jun nodded. "A distortion field would contain a blast if one of them stepped on a mine and turn it back in on itself instead of blowing outward. An Aesti would stand a better chance of survival WITHOUT the field on."  
  
"Sounds dangerous."  
  
"It is." He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes.  
  
Megumi reached across the table and took his hand. "Come on, Jun chan," she whispered. "You need to rest."  
  
"I can't," he whispered. "I CAN'T," he told her more seriously. "Tomorrow morning, five pilots are going to go out there, and if the information I give them isn't the absolute best I can make it, one of them might not come back!"  
  
"Jun chan," Megumi whispered. "Would YOU want to go out there with information given to you by an exhausted man who hadn't rested all night?"  
  
He paused at this and took a breath. "No, I guess I wouldn't."  
  
She stood up, still having hold of his hand. "Come on," she said with a smile. "You can look over the information again tomorrow morning, fresh and relaxed."  
  
Jun smiled and finally relented. "All right." He stood up and handed the pad to her. "Lead on."  
  
  
  
Jun stared up at his darkened ceiling and sighed. If he was just going to stay awake anyway, he should have just stayed at the club and got some more work done.  
  
No, Megumi was right. Staring at that pad any longer wasn't going to help. He just wished that he knew for certain that his ideas would work. The thought that five lives depended on him being accurate scared him a little.  
  
If only there was a way to test the ideas out…  
  
He reached up to the ceiling and stretched, yawning loudly. As he brought his hands down, he blinked. His hand.  
  
The tattoo on his hand…  
  
Jun threw the covers off and began to dress. 


End file.
